The all-defining theme of those applying for asylum is waiting – above all, waiting for a decision in their asylum cases. During this period they do not exist as citizens – not in the political sense, as they have no rights of self- and co-determination and no freedom of movement, not in the social sense, as they cannot participate in many areas of public life, and not in the personal sense, as no one listens to them.

The Tyrol lives from “foreigners”. But one foreigner is not always the same as another. There are currently nine hostels for asylum applicants in the state (as of October 2014). Besides container settlements, former homes or barracks, it is quite common to re-convert hospitality businesses that have become out-of-date, ones that tourists can no longer be expected to tolerate, into accommodation for refugees. Their locations in the centre of town or on the periphery, their architectural conditions, and their original use and function produce and structure social relations.

In a cautious two-year research process, Robert Gander and Günter Richard Wett approached these institutions, which generally evade the eye of the majority society, through video and photography. The residents are granted a voice in around sixty interviews. The results can now be seen in a comverted container – the symbol of transit and of the provisional – on the square in front of the Tyrolean State Theatre in Innsbruck.